We were doing our second Athena's for the day and were heading for the final island to get the legendary chest where a sloop was parked nose first facing the island.
About a grid square or two away from our destination the kraken decided to play with us. Whilst my regular crew mate likes the challenge of defeating Karen with cannons, just to break up the monotony, I'd much rather just shoot the front two tentacles with my pistol to break her hold and save resources.
We're usually placid players just doing voyages, forts and events. But once or twice a week my regular crew mate feels the need to exert some PvP gameplay for a couple of minutes, which is fine. A sloop had not too long ago fired upon us at our previous island as it sailed by very close so his want for seeking vengeance was justified.
I couldn't tell if this was the same sloop at our destination but it's crew had a lot of time to move on, if they desired. After our kraken encounter we sailed on only using half of the rear sail with the other two sails completely up.
As we approached our helmsman's son sword lunged over to the parked vessel. He could see a level 10 Athena figurehead adorned the bow and that there was somebody moving about below deck inside the sloop.
I stood on the helm of our galleon atop of the stairs where I could watch both ladders for a boarder while my mate fired upon the sloop, killing its occupant in the process.
My mate's son boarded the vessel where he told us that he saw a regular Gold Hoarder's voyage on the table and that the boat was full of loot.
It was strange not to see a mermaid, perhaps the sloopist was playing solo. We assumed he / she must have rage quit.
It was hard not feeling sorry for this person now. Maybe they were afk until we arrived?
There had to have been a dozen chests, mostly captain's.
I started to doubt our actions.
Surely an Athena's level 10 player knew the risks of sailing solo and being afk for so long. Surely he/she also knew not to park the boat facing the island and to cash-in every so often.
Then again, maybe he / she had been playing with an Athena 10+ PL who had since left the game.
If this tale sounds familiar to your experience yesterday then I apologize and hope that you learn from it.
Don't point your vessel to the island when parked, keep it broadside in case of attacking ships.
Don't go afk whilst solo and always cash-in regularly.
After retrieving the legendary chest of our voyage and the sloop's loot, my crew sailed in silence for some time until my mate's son said "Imagine if they were doing an Athena's voyage and had dug up the legendary chest?".
